Things To Avoid In SEO
A lot of people describe SEO, or ‘search engine optimisation’ as a dark art. From HTML tags to getting your content just right to earning those all-important quality backlinks, there’s a lot to consider and it can be overwhelming if you’re not used to it!
And while there are plenty of tips, tricks and techniques you should be doing to optimise your site, there are also a few things you definitely should avoid if you want your site to rank for those all-important keywords!
Writing For Yourself
One key mistake that many business owners make when writing on-page SEO content for their site is writing for themselves.
Unfortunately, just because you might not use a particular word or describe your products in a certain way, this doesn’t mean your average customer doesn’t either!
It’s crucial to be found in search engines for what your customers are actually searching for!
Duplicate Content
We cannot stress this one enough: don’t duplicate content across multiple pages!
We know that the service you provide in Leeds is the exact same service you provide in York, but if you have these as two separate local landing pages, make sure the copy is different!
If Google finds you have duplicate content across multiple pages, then it won’t know which page to show in the rankings! This will therefore negatively impact all duplicated pages and will have the opposite effect of what you were aiming for!
Keyword Stuffing
If you haven’t heard of keyword stuffing, it’s the practice of incorporating your target keyword way too many times in your content, to the point where it reads unnaturally and comes across as spammy.
Of course, we want our customers to find us and keyword targeting is a fantastic way of doing just that. But when a keyword is quite literally ‘stuffed’ in content at every available opportunity Google will absolutely penalise you for it!
Paying For Backlinks
It may sound harsh but if you’re paying for backlinks – especially if Barry two streets down offers to get you 500 for a fiver, unfortunately, you can say goodbye to good rankings (or in the worst case, any rankings at all!).
See, the thing about backlinks is that they should be:
- Good quality
- Relevant
- Earned
To know if a site for a potential backlink is relevant – think about whether and how it relates to your business, and whether or not it’s a site that potential customers of yours are likely to visit.
In regards to needing to earn backlinks, unfortunately, there’s no quick or easy way to do this (and it certainly doesn’t involve paying money for spammy links!). The best approach is to write and create content sites will want to link to without you needing to beg and borrow (or pay!).
At Kangaroo SEO, we’re a small team with big agency capabilities and can provide an entire range of SEO services (including helping you earn those pesky backlinks!).
If you’d like to find out more about how we can help your site be found on Google and be seen by the right people, contact us today to find out more about how we can help.
